In the Eyes of Stone Dogs

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled bloggatical to bring you this important news:

Six years ago, my dear friend Linda (then Culbert) asked me to audition for a show her boyfriend wanted to put on. The show was We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! by Dario Fo. At first I didn’t even want to audition because I was 100% certain that said boyfriend did not like me, so what would be the point? But she insisted. And I did. Though I don’t quite remember all the details, I do have a email dated October 17, 2005 from Miss Culbert that states: “Hey Nancy, First of all, congrats! Aren’t you glad I asked you to audition? hee hee. Anyhow, here’s the copy of the script as promised. See you soon!”

So, I’m pretty sure I got the part.

Yup. Pretty sure. (Sidebar: Those are totally Linda's shoes and I think she still wears them today.) - Photo by Mark Ignatiev

Six years and eleven productions later, two world premieres among various other types of Ottawa premieres, rave critical reviews, season sponsorship and multiple grants, charitable status and board of directors, a short pause for a wedding and a baby (though thanks fully not at the same time), mentorship through the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Resident Company of the Arts Court Theatre, and now a partnership with the Ottawa Theatre School… Evolution Theatre has come a long way from a bare-bones set in the basement of the University of Ottawa.

Which brings me to the reason for this little break from my break from writing my blog (does that sentence even make sense?) –
Tomorrow night, Evolution Theatre will be opening their latest production, In the Eyes of Stone Dogs by Daniel Danis, directed by Christopher Bedford (said boyfriend from the previous anecdote), featuring Catriona Leger, Andy Massingham and the graduating class of the Ottawa Theatre School. This is the company’s first production in their new home at Arts Court and the first of what I’m sure will be many fruitful artistic collaboration. That said, for the first time in six years, I’m not involved and, worse yet, I can’t be there.

But hopefully, you can.

My spies tell me it’s a really great show and I’m willing to believe them since it looks like this:

Evolution Theatre: Because boring is not in the mandate. Photo by Andrew Alexander Photography

It breaks my heart that I might not be able to see it, so would you do me a really big favour? Go see it for me. Tickets can be bought online and it looks like you can still get some for opening night. That usually means you get a party with your ticket. A party! So please, for me, buy a ticket and then let me know what’s going on at the party by live tweeting with the #StoneDogs hashtag the cast and crew have been using. And then come back here and let me know what you thought of the show in the comment section below.

To the cast and crew: Break a leg! Thank you for opening up this new chapter in Evolution Theatre history.

To Chris and Linda: You’ve worked hard and I am so proud of you. Merde!

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Responses

I can hardly believe you still have that e-mail! But really, aren’t you glad I convinced you to audition?
We miss you so much and it breaks our hearts that you may not be able to see this show. I’m so proud of it and everyone involved.
As a side note – those shoes finally met their demise last winter… they had a good run though!🙂